I bought a steel building that had never been assembled. Old gentleman bought it and died before he could put it up. Sat in a pile in a field for about 5 yrs. His wife said that she had no idea what size it was.Can anyone guess at what size it might be from this list so I can pour the right size pad?
32 pieces galvanized 15"long
3 fiberglass panels 11"
Painted brown:
6 -13"1"
1-12"10"
3-12"7"
3-12"4"
27-12"1"
2-2"-9"
3-3"
3-2"
I may have miscounted some of the longer sheets but not by much. Come on you builders, give me a measurement for my pad.

Not a builder by trade but if it I were figuring for myself here's what I'd look at. Mind you though that without alot more information what I'm thinking would be nothing more than a wild a$$ed guess, at best...

First are the 32 sheets of galvanized just for the roof, or are some used for sides too? That said, given the length, and that there are other painted sheets, I'd have to assume they were for the roof. If that's the case then half the number to 16 to start with. Then take the width of each piece, minus twice the overlap distance (for example 2 inches for each piece, or 4 inches per joint) and the overhang desired on each end, and multiply the result by 16. This should give you a rough idea on the length of the building.

Beyond that I don't know how you'd tell the width without more info. That said, a wild guess, it stands to reason that it would have a maximum ridge height of the longest painted piece, or 13'1" a side wall height of 12'1". The problem is that doesn't leave much of a pitch so as much as it seems to make sense, it really doesn't.

Basically, beyond a rough length, and a guess on a width based on calculating the span of two fifteen foot pieces set at the pitch you want to put them on, there's really no way to figure anything accuracy. I don't know about you, but I personally wouldn't feel comfortable spending money on pouring and finishing a pad to set a building on unless I knew exactly what size it was going to be. My suggestion would be to figure out who the mfg was, if it was a manufactured building, and call them. You never know, in 5 years there could be pieces missing that make the whole thing nothing more than a pile usless steel, and you'd never know it.

Are there any pieces that look like trusses? Those will dictate the width of the building and the pitch of the roof. The trusses should be very easy to pick out, since they'll be quite heavy, possibly triangular or trapezoidal in shape, and will have ends that aren't square. If you can't find any trusses, then either they're missing or this isn't any kind of building with which I'm familiar. Even a flat roof will need some sort of beams to support its weight.

You should also be able to pick out the purlins and girts. Both will be lighter gauge material. Girts are the horizontal beams on the sides and ends to which the sheeting attaches; they usually have a "C" cross section. The purlins are on the roof and support the roofing; these typically have an "S" section.

Ultimately, you're going to need to figure out how the structural pieces (trusses, purlins and girts) go together in order to size a pad. Trying to figure out dimensions from the sheeting is a waste of time. You don't know which, if any, of the sheets have to be cut, you don't know the dimensions of the doors and other openings.

There should be a lot of loose hardware, too: bolts, screws, brackets, etc. Try to find every last bit of it, because some of it may be difficult to replace.

I believe I would start over and build a building the size you need. It also appears he didn't plan to have the peak of the roof high enough. At mininimum you should rise 1" for every foot long so if the building is just under 30' wide some of the brown panels should have been at least 13'-4" for the ends. Assuming the panels are 3' wide, 27 pieces of 12'-1" would make two walls 40' for the front and back. I would guess the building would be 29'x40' but it doesn't quite add up. You would have some galvanized left over but need to purchase some more brown. By the way if you use the fiberglass skylights they are real nice however in damp weather condensation forms on the panels and drips. This will also occur with the galvanized if you don't use insulation on the ceiling.

I have built a number of pole buildings at the job. You didn't say if there were any trusses, but I am assuming that the galvanized would be the roof and brown is the siding. That said, 32 pieces of roofing divide in two for each side, that would make 30 feet wide and assuming 3 foot wide panels 48 feet long roughly, you will need to deduct for overhang and slope. The walls would be 12' 1" and the longer sheets for the gable ends as the roof slopes up and need longer pieces. The short sheets would be for over the door on a gable end. This would be my guess or a good place to plan anew.

No matter the finished size plan on raising the finished floor at LEAST one foot Above grade so water does not flow into your building. (See the posting about surface water flowing into building topic in "all the rest". Armand

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